THE LOST-DAY QUESTION by C. Castberg

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 21, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 21.

THE LOST-DAY QUESTION.

By C. Castberg

In the minds of many there seems to exist a vague idea that somehow, in the progression of time, one or more days were lost out of the reckoning, and that we do not now know what day in the week is the true seventh day. Strange to say, this objection is generally resorted to only when the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is advanced. This question is made clear and forever settled by “Olmstead’s College Astronomy” (pp. 52, 53, § 86, 87, 88):—

The Julian Calendar.

The period in which the sun passes from the vernal equinox to the same point again is called the “tropical year.” In that period the round of the seasons is exactly completed. The length of the tropical year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46.15 seconds. This is so near 365.25 days that in the adjustment of the calendar made by Julius Cæsar (hence called the Julian calendar) three successive years were made to contain 365 days each, and the fourth 366 days; the additional day is called the “intercalary day.” In this calendar it was introduced by reckoning twice the sixth day before the Calends of March, and hence the year containing this additional day was called the “bissextile.” The intercalary day is now the 29th of February, and the year containing such a day is called leap-year.

The Gregorian Calendar.

By calling the tropical year 365.25 days, the Julian calendar makes it more than eleven minutes too long, and the intercalation of one day in four years is therefore too great. This excess amounts to more than eighteen hours in a century. Hence, by dropping the intercalary day three times in four centuries, the adjustment is nearly complete. The Julian calendar, thus amended, is called the Gregorian calendar, because adopted under Pope Gregory XIII. At that time, 1582 A. D., the vernal equinox, by the error of the Julian calendar, had fallen back to March 11th. To bring the equinox to its proper date, ten days [dates] were first dropped, the 5th being called the 15th, and then the following system was adopted: Every year not exactly divisible by four has 365 days. Every year divisible by four and not by 100 has 366 days. Every year divisible by 100 and not by 400 has 365 days. Every year divisible by 400 has 366 days. The Gregorian calendar will not be correct perpetually, but the error will not amount to one day in 4,000 years. Russia has not yet adopted the Gregorian calendar, so that there is now a discrepancy of twelve days between their dates and those of other nations.

How to Compare Days of the Month and of the Week in Passing from One Year to Another.

A common year of 365 days contains 52 weeks and 1 day. A leap-year contains 52 weeks and 2 days. Hence a year usually begins a day later in the week than the previous year, and generally any day of any month is one day in the week more than the same day of the preceding year.

These paragraphs settle the lost-day question. There was no time lost, but man’s calendar got out of harmony with God’s, and man had to adjust his calendar to God’s, or go farther and farther astray. Neither were the days of the week disturbed in their order by these changes of the calendar; simply the date of the day of the month was changed. While the dates of the days of the month are ever shifting along on the days of the week, the order of the days of the week remains unchanged, and is about the only unchangeable thing in the progression of time.

C. CASTBERG.